THE LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 821 



No. 331. 



LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 



A. O. U. No. 169. Chen hyperborea (Pall). 



Synonym. — White Brant. 



Description. — Adult: Entire plumage, except the primaries and their coverts, 

 pure white; head and neck often heavily tinged with rusty : primaries blackish and 

 with dark shafts on exposed portions, grayish and with white shafts basally ; pri- 

 mary coverts gray with dark shafts : bill short, stout, with widely gaping commis- 

 sure, showing black edges of mandibles, said to be purplish red in life, drying 

 dull orange, nail white: feet and legs (drying) orange-red. Iiutnatitrc: Head 

 and neck pale gray ; back and wings, except cjuills. gray, varied by mesial dusky 

 and marginal whitish, notably on wing-coverts and tertiaries ; remaining phunage 

 white. Length about 25.00 ( 635 I ; wing 16.00 (406.4); tail 6.00 (152.4); bill 

 2.00-2.15 ( 50.8-54.6 I : tarsus 3.00 ( 76.2 ) ; middle toe and claw 2.30 ( 58.4 ). 



Recognition Marks. — Brant size ; pure white plumage with conspicuous 

 black primaries (hence not difficult to determine on the wingi. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Washington. Xcsi: of grasses and down on 

 the ground. Eggs: 2-6, soiled whitish. Av. size, 3. 13.x 2. 12 ( 79-5 x 53.9). 



General Range. — Pacific Coast to the Alississippi \'alley, breeding in Alaska ; 

 south in winter to southern California and southern Illinois, casually to New 

 England. Northeastern Asia. 



Range in Washington. — Not common migrant both sides of the Cascades; 

 winter resident, casually abundant, on Puget Sound. 



Authorities. — [Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle : Coues. \'ol. 

 n. p. 190.] Anser hxpcrborcus. Pallas, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IN. 1858, 

 p. 760. T. C&S. Kk.'E. 



Specimens. — ( U. of W.) Prov. BN. 



WHITE is a color of ill omen in a bird's plumage. It should typify 

 purity : but it spells easy m.a.rk, instead, to the sportsman : and the sportsman 

 under his various disguises has a long lead over the poet in this countrv. The 

 color is, of course, highly protective in a region of snow and ice, such as this 

 bird frequents in summer. Nor is it difficult to trace its protective signifi- 

 cance in the case of Pelicans which sit along the margin of some lake, like 

 windrows of alkaline froth; nor in that of certain sea-birds whose white is the 

 mere embodiment of storm-tossed billows. But paint a game bird white and 

 put the crazy notion into his noggin of wintering in California — the case is 

 quite hopeless. 



Of this bird's occurrence in California in the Fifties, Dr. Heermann 

 wrote^ : "Frequents more especially the salt marsh districts, tho found also 



a. Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., Vol. X., p. 68. 



